What has been happening this week in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies? Current events and background reports in our weekly review.
Selected articles of the week:
For the first time since the last bear market, more than half of the circulating Bitcoin supply now sits at a loss. The Norwegian crypto research house K33 Research uses its “Supply in Loss” metric to measure what share of coins last moved above the current market price. Four weeks earlier, that share stood at roughly 30%, before the price fell from around USD 82,000 to around USD 61,000. Historically, the 50% threshold has only been reached near major lows. In the bear markets of 2011, 2018 and 2022, Bitcoin formed a bottom within 31 days; in 2014, by contrast, it took 101 days. The sell-off accelerated through record outflows of 85,643 BTC from exchange-traded products within four weeks. K33 maintains USD 60,000 as the cycle low, while market maker Wintermute warns against premature calls for a bottom.
More than 50% of the bitcoin supply now sits at a loss. K33 sees parallels to earlier bear market lows that followed within weeks.
BlackRock aims to beat Goldman Sachs to the Bitcoin income ETF
Despite recent ETF outflows, BlackRock continues to expand its Bitcoin offering. The world’s largest asset manager filed its fourth amendment to the registration of the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA) with the SEC, likely the last before it takes effect, according to Bloomberg analysts. The fund holds shares of the spot ETF IBIT and sells call options against them; the premiums fund monthly distributions but cap participation in strong price gains. With a fee of 0.65% per year, BITA significantly undercuts existing competitors YBTC (0.95%) and BTCI (0.99%). Goldman Sachs’ competing product is expected to take effect around July 1, 2026. Covered-call ETFs are regarded as the second wave after the spot products and target income-oriented institutional investors such as pension funds.
BlackRock files its fourth S-1 amendment for the Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA). Analysts expect a launch ahead of Goldman Sachs.
Citigroup positions itself as gatekeeper for pre-IPO tokens
The Wall Street houses are pushing deeper into the crypto market beyond ETFs as well. The US bank Citigroup is launching a platform through which wealthy and institutional clients can trade tokenized shares of private companies. Settlement runs on the Swiss SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), the country’s first FINMA-licensed DLT securities depository. Citi acts as both custodian and tokenization agent here, and is speaking directly with large private companies about participating. The bank thereby sets itself apart from unilateral offerings such as Robinhood’s, from which OpenAI publicly distanced itself. Firms like SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI are staying private longer, and demand for pre-IPO access is growing accordingly. Citi itself forecasts tokenized assets of USD 5.5 trillion by 2030, compared with roughly USD 17 billion today.
Citigroup launches tokenized shares of private companies on the FINMA-licensed SDX platform, initially only for non-US investors.
Reuters lays bare the balance sheet of the Trump crypto empire
The crypto business of the US presidential family presents itself as considerably less institutional. A Reuters analysis puts the Trumps’ profits from four projects at around USD 2.3 billion. The finance professors surveyed estimate the startup costs at nearly zero, while investors in those same projects suffered paper losses of almost identical size. The largest item is World Liberty Financial at more than USD 1.4 billion, followed by the TRUMP meme coin at an estimated USD 616 million. Its price sits a good 84% below the prior-year level; an analysis by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis shows that a few large early traders profited while hundreds of thousands of small investors lost out. Moreover, 36 of the 50 largest WLFI wallets belong to foreign buyers, among them the Emirati vehicle MGX with USD 500 million.
A Reuters analysis estimates the Trump family’s crypto gains at $2.3 billion, while investors incurred book losses of the same amount.
Blockworks consolidates the crypto data market
Popular on CVJ.AI: Consolidation is advancing in the crypto data market. The New York data and investor-relations platform Blockworks is acquiring competitor Messari for just over USD 10 million, a fraction of the roughly USD 300 million at which the data house was valued during its Series B round in 2022. The discount reflects the departure of co-founder Ryan Selkis in 2024, subsequent job cuts and the harsh market environment. Blockworks financed the acquisition partly through a recently closed Series A extension at a valuation of USD 192 million, and aims to bundle the fragmented data market along the lines of Bloomberg and FactSet. Across the industry, M&A activity remains high: advisory firm Architect Partners counts 144 deals worth USD 11.8 billion so far in 2026, roughly 3.5% more than the previous year.
Blockworks acquires Messari in crypto data consolidation deal
The acquisition reflects the drastic valuation corrections for crypto startups that were once riding high.
